The present invention relates to a shuttering system for casting a concrete wall or partition, and a method for assembling the system, in which two walls defining a casting cavity are each formed by adjoining panels supported by uprights having means which enable the perpendicularity of and spacing between the walls to be adjusted.
Already known from French Pat. Nos. 742,964 and 1,478,907 is a shuttering system of the type comprising metal uprights which are arranged to face each other in two spaced apart rows, respective panels which are fastened to each row of uprights to form a pair of flat opposing surfaces which define a casting cavity for the concrete, respective adjustable support means associated with respective uprights in one row to maintain said uprights in their vertical positions of use and enable adjustment of the transverse perpendicularity of the uprights and of the surface supported thereby, and respective lower and upper transverse connecting members for interconnecting the lower and uppers parts of the uprights in each row which face each other, the transverse members enabling the adjustment of the spacing between these lower and upper parts, and the adjustment of the perpendicularity of the surface supported by the uprights in the other row and its parallelism relative to the other surface.
This allows the adoption of an assembly procedure comprising the steps of: arranging metal uprights to oppose each other in two rows; interconnecting the lower and upper parts of each opposing pair of uprights by means of respective lower and upper transverse connecting members which permit the spacing between the lower and upper parts to be adjusted; attaching adjoining panels to the uprights of the two rows so as to form, between the rows of uprights, a pair of flat opposing surfaces which define a cavity for casting the concrete; adjusting the transverse perpendicularity of one row of uprights to adjust the perpendicularity of the surface supported thereby, and adjusting the spacing between the lower and upper parts of the uprights to adjust the perpendicularity of the other surface and the parallelism of the two walls.
French Pat. No. 742,964 describes the use of panels which are fixed directly to the internal faces of the uprights to form the walls of the casting cavity. These panels, which may be of wood, have a limited height, (about 80 cm), a varied length, and are subdivided into two or more adjoining portions which are interconnected by vertical joints, such as hinges or restrained joints. This subdivision of the panels is probably to permit economy of space during transport. It is obvious, however, that vertical joints, such as hinges or restrained joints, make these panels costly, necessitating their removal for re-use when a wall or partition has been cast, and also constitute weak zones in which the panels are susceptible to collapse under the lateral hydrostatic pressure of the liquid concrete, unless more expense is incurred in providing very strong joints. The presence of these weak zones is not so important when the panels are of a limited height, such as 80 cm. Such panels, however, only permit a wall or partition to be cast in successive stages of this limited height.
In order to cast in one stage a wall or partition of a height corresponding to that of a storey of a building, using the system described in French Pat. No. 742,964, it would be necessary to deploy uprights in correspondence with all the vertical joints, thereby requiring an excessive number of uprights.
According to French Pat. No. 1,478,907 the aforesaid drawbacks are partly eliminated by using metal panels which extend horizontally and are fixed one on top of the other against the uprights. The panels are secured to the uprights by means of a fairly complex fastening system which enables them to slide horizontally. In this case also, use is made of special panels which are expensive and which, therefore, should be re-used continuously.
The use of hinged rows of panels has another drawback: the length of the walls which may be obtained is dictated by the length of the available panels. Therefore, given the use of special panels, it would not be economically viable to provide a whole range of panels in a large number of different lengths.
The systems described in French Pat. Nos. 742,964 and 1,478,907 have in common the disadvantages of not permitting the use of economical panels, such as wooden boards, which are in common use in the construction industry, and of not allowing the use of panels which can be left in place after the concrete has set so as to form a cladding or wainscoting for the wall or partition, for example, for thermal and/or acoustic insulation.
The object of the present invention is to produce a shuttering system which enables the use of economical panels, such as wooden boards, which can be left in place, and which permits the casting of walls or partitions of any length.